Disney[1] — forced to sell the 22 regional sports channels it acquired when it purchased Twenty-First Century Fox’s entertainment assets — has a stark choice to make.
While Amazon and Sinclair Broadcast Group are set to buy the YES Network, there are four other groups vying to buy the other 21 channels: Sinclair, Liberty Media, Major League Baseball and a consortium of LL Cool J[2], jeweler Carolyn Rafaelian and Ice Cube, co-founder of the BIG3 basketball league, featuring retired NBA players and international players playing three-on-three.
The Post’s Josh Kosman broke the story[3] that Disney has found buyers for the Yankees channel, who will collectively pay $3.47 billion.
The Yankees had the right of first refusal on the sale. But they won’t be making the call for the remaining channels.
“It’s women and diversity versus the old white guys,” one insider told me. “Disney has to make a choice.”
The Justice Department is forcing the sell-off of the channels as a condition of its approval of Disney’s acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox’s assets.